More updates to come

Let's see... it has been a while since I have written anything. I haven't had any internet connection while I was in Fiji. Here is a run-down of what has happened.

31 March Thursday:
It was my last day of work and I was there until nearly 6pm finishing some things up and cleaning out my desk and all that jazz. I went home and met up with Hamish and we went to Eastside to have dinner. Amanda was working there so we hung out with her a little as well...

1 April Friday:
I did some laundry and then Amanda and I walked in to town. We had breakfast at Scott's Epicurean then went to Dick Smith's Electronics so I could use the $NZ60 gift certificate I got from work. I got the BroTown and Kath & Kim DVDs. I think the crew at home will love those. Amanda got some makeup at Farmers then we walked home. I packed all my stuff then went over to Gareth, Sarah, and Simon's house for a while before dinner. My farewell dinner was at Kobe and we had about 12 people there. Awesome food as always. Afterwards we went in to town and hung out at Sohl Bar for the night. Boldis was having his 30th birthday dinner that night too, so it was cool to see a lot of other people there. Some of the guys from work showed up as well.

2 April Saturday:
Marty, Kenny, and I went out to breakfast at Rocket then over to Gareth, Sarah, and Simon's house. Hung out there for a while until Simeon showed up and then we went to my house and packed up my stuff and headed off to Auckland. Pretty funny that Simeon gave me a ride from Bubba's to Hamilton last April and a year later he gave me a ride from Hamilton back to Bubba's. Good stuff. Steph cooked us dinner then Bubba and I went to the movies and saw The Ring 2. It was entertaining, but not nearly as good as the first one.

3 April Sunday:
Steph and Bubba gave me a ride to the airport in the morning. I had brunch there while I was waiting for my flight, then took off for Fiji. Got to Fiji about 4pm and a guy from Rendezvous Surf and Dive Resort picked me up at the airport. It was about a 40 minute drive to the resort and I was in jeans. It was about 35C and I was sweating my balls off. We stopped briefly and I picked up a drink, then we carried on. When I got there dinner was ready. The food at the resort was FANTASTIC!. There was only one other guy staying there that night, Ian from the UK. After dinner we sat around and drank kava and Aku sang me a welcome song. After about 4 or 5 bowls of kava it kicked in and I went right to bed.

4 April Monday:
I got up at about 7am and headed off with Ben, the owner of the Rendezvous Surf and Dive Resort, at 8 to do some diving. We dove at the Fish Market and Natuko Bowl. Both we very nice dive sites. Many fish, warm water, both hard and soft corals, and so many anenomes to tease. Ben's 4 year old daughter came with us and snorkelled while we were diving. She followed us the whole time. Amazing for a kid that young... When we got back we had lunch and then I just hung out for a few hours. In the afternoon I went in to town with David (the resort's massage guy). He showed me around a bit and told me what to watch out for. There are so many people in Nadi who are just trying to rip you off. I heard it is even worse in Asia though... I ended up buying a kava bowl. David said he would get some good "Grade A" kava from one of his mates for me for "Grade C" prices. At the market we found the "Grade C" price to be $FJ30/kg... I took the bus back to the resort at night. Some others had shown up. We had dinner and again it was kava time.

5 April Tuesday:
After getting blisters on my feet from the fins I was wearing diving I thought I would do some surfing instead. I went out to Wilkes Break in the wee hours with some Aussie guys and one guy from the UK named Matty. The tide was already low and on its way out. I caught one wave and rode it in too far. I ended up on the reef and then when the next wave came it slammed me into the reef. My feet and knees hit pretty hard. I paddled out of there but was pretty knackered at that point. I made it back the boat eventually, but was feeling nailed. Once I got into the boat I saw that my feet were cut up pretty badly, but my knees were fine. I just hung out in the boat the rest of the time and took at nap in the sun. At least I can say I have surfed a reef break in Fiji (and it was the reef right next to Cloud Break!). For the In the afternoon I went to the beach at Siga Toka Beach with the Norwegian girls who had come the day before. They were going to learn to surf there. Unfortunately it was more like a lagoon, but a few small waves came through now and again, so they liked it. I snorkelled around for a few hours... Once again there was kava after dinner and we all planned what we would do on Wednesday. A Canadian girl had shown up and wanted to go out to some other islands. I did as well, so we asked about doing an island hopping tour.

6 April Wednesday:
We did the island hopping tour in the morning. The Norwegian girls and Ian were also interested so we went out to Plantation Island and did some snorkelling off the southern reef there then walked around the beach and the resorts a bit. Checked out Musket Cove and Plantation resorts. Whoa... those were pretty nice! In the afternoon we went back to Rendevous and hung out there. Some people went to the beach, but I just stayed and took a nap and read in the hammocks. Again, dinner, then kava!

7 April Thursday:
I wanted to spend a day just chilling out so I stayed at the Rendezvous Surf and Dive Resort all day. I just slept in hammocks and read my book all day. It was so relaxing... I loved it. Some of the guys who work at the resort had a pig hunt on Wednesday night and so we had pork and some native potato-like thing for dinner. Again it was awesome and we had kava afterwards. After that Ben gave me a ride to the airport. I can't believe he is selling the place. After purchasing it when it was just sugarcane and completely building it from scratch in just five years... He loves it and wants to build a new place that will be better. He says he has learned quite a bit from the first one, so his second should be bigger and better. All he wants for it is $US1 million. I am almost interested in buying it for that price. I think that is pretty cheap. I am sure that the property value is only going to increase and I could have that place packed day in and day out. It was be a fun place to run, but I don't know how I feel about moving to Fiji. I could drink a lot of kava if I was there though!

After a few days in Fiji I feel great. I like the island life and being somewhere warm and sunny was fun. I wish I could have done more surfing and diving though... For about the last 3-4 week before I left NZ I had an eye-twitch in my left eye. One of those over-tired over-stressed ones. It is gone now... Ahhhh. Good old Fiji!